What works best with Life?

My main wizard is a life wizard I love the class but we don't have any spells to attack all enemies and our damage spells are much weaker then other classes. I tryed storm to increase the damage I could do but found that I fizzle so much that I can never get a spell off. I found the Niles tree of balance in Krok which has the spirit blade and spirit trap spells(life, death and myth blades/traps in one spell). I sold my storm trained spells and changed to myth but I'm finding that the pip cost to cast spirit blades, spirit traps, and either frog or minotaur (I don't have earthquake yet) is making every battle last a VERY long time and even worse if I cast time of legend. I can do more damage with that many pips using centaurs and life blades,Can anyone suggest some combinations that are effective, ecconomical for pips/mana, and speed up the battles so I can kill faster?I'm told that the more rounds a combat lasts the more experience you gain from it, so as a result I'm already level 35 and I'm not even half way though marleybone while friends of mine at the same levels are already half way though mooshu. I'm also curious, if more rounds of combat result in more experience gain, does a longer battle increase the drop rate for rare items?

To the above poster: Feint is indeed 70/30. The 70/70 you see in game is a bug that has yet to be fixed, but the damage taken is the 30% as listed on the card.

To the original poster: I vouch for death up to feint as well. There is not much reason to go all the way up to Wraith.

Also, make sure you picked up life trap from the trainer in collosus boulevard. Combat should go like this; life blade, life trap, feint, centaur. That should give a base damage of around 2,000, but can be more if wearing the level 50 DS gear. This is enough damage to one shot all the trash enemies and boss minions, even with the -25% damage shield on you. The balance shields from krokotopia are not usually worth it in most fights, if you are going for effeciency.

With a high pip chance, which you should have by end of DS, you will be throwing out these centaur every four rounds (more if you need to take time to heal or whatever).

Also, I change my deck a lot. But for a basic default deck, you only really need four sets or so of centaur/lifetrap/lifeblade/feint combo. Then add in a few random utility spells or heals, and that should be enough. Add a reshuffle in treasure card slot for emergencies. Keeping a small deck ensures you get the exact cards you want every time.

As for the rest of your points, it is personal choice, but here are a few ideas:

-Ice up to tower shield. (I believe there are enough points to go feint and tower shield, but I honestly never trained up to both yet on any wizard, so someone can confirm or deny this.)

-Train some/all of the -80% shields. Personally, I prefer to just purchase the -85% treasure card versions for when I need them.

-Train the Balance shields from Krokotopia. Yes, I don't find them that effecient to use all the time, but stacking shields is fun and can be useful in groups. Certainly worth picking up if you have extra points.

Really though, Feint being the exception, training points are not really needed to get through the game at all. As I mentioned earlier, buying treasure card versions of damage reduction shields is not expensive and is a viable option. There is not much point to picking up a second school for damage, because after Krokotopia, your secondary spells will not get much use. (Power pip usage starts to take over)